The out of control Chinese space station that is expected to fall sometime between mid-March and April, has now been given possible locations of the crash landing, which were previously unknown.
Scientists have figured out the locations where the around 9.5-ton Chinese space station, Tiangong-1, is expected to fall in upcoming weeks. According to scientists, the space station might fall in places including Spain, Portugal, France or maybe Greece.
The time and location of the fall was previously a mystery. With passing time, Chinese scientists said that the station would fall in the latter half of 2017, however, it was moved further to mid-March to April 2018. Narrowing it down further, European Space Agency (ESA) believes that the space station will fall sometime between March 29 and April 9 in anywhere between 43° north to 43° south (e.g. Spain, France, Portugal, Greece, etc.), however, the current predicted information is ‘highly variable’, wrote The Washington Post. “At no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible,” the agency said.
Brace yourselves! Chinese space station to soon crash into Earth
Plunging down at a speed of about 18,000mph, the scientists, nevertheless, predict that there are no reasons to panic around. They expect that most of the 19,000 pound laboratory is expected to disintegrate upon its re-entry to Earth. But an astrophysicist, Jonathan McDowell informed The Guardian that debris weighing up to 220 pounds can make it to the Earth’s surface and even the trivial changes in Earth’s atmosphere can change the landing side from one continent to another.
The Tiangong-1 space laboratory, also called ‘Heavenly Palace’ was launched in 2011 by China as its first space laboratory. Though hoped to be a permanent space station, in 2016 the Chinese officials declared that they lost control of it and will crash back to Earth.